It’s the season for baking like a crazy person! Or at least like someone who waits all year to have an excuse to keep the oven raring, a good supply of flour and sugar on hand and oven mits ready. The following holiday dessert recipes are courtesy of restaurants we’ve visited who generously shared their recipes with us.

Marcella’s Crespelle dessert. Photo courtesy Marcella’s

Holiday Dessert Recipes: Ricotta Crespelle from Marcella’s Ristorante Pizzeria and Wine Bar
Denver location

Makes 4 crepes
3 oz. sweet ricotta cheese (Recipe below)
Olive oil or cooking spray
1 oz. Grand Marnier strawberries (Recipe below)
1 TBS Marcona almonds
1 TBS powdered sugar
Lemon zest, to taste
Place 3/4 oz. of sweet ricotta cheese in the center of each crepe and fold over twice to make a “slice.” Spray a baking sheet with olive oil or cooking spray and place crepes on it. Heat the crepes in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes until the ricotta cheese is warmed through. Place crepes on a plate. Spoon Grand Marnier strawberries over top. Garnish with Marcona almonds, powdered sugar and lemon zest, to taste. Serve immediately.

Grand Marnier Strawberries
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 TBS of grand marinier
1 TBS of granulated sugar
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and let sit for 1 hour at room temperature before using for flavors to come together.

Sweet Ricotta
3 fluid ounces of ricotta, drained through a fine strainer in the refrigerator overnight.  Draining 1/2 cup of ricotta will yield the 3-fluid ounces
1 t. granulated sugar
Zest of half a lemon
Combine all ingredients in a bowl.

Biscochitos cookie recipe courtesy of Angel Fire Resort.

Holiday Dessert Recipes: Angel Fire Resort’s Biscochitos Cookies

Ingredients
6 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups lard
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 TBS baking powder
2 tsp anise seed
2 eggs
1/4 cup brandy
1/4 cup white sugar
1 TBS ground cinnamon

Method
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the lard and 1 1/2 cups sugar until smooth. Mix in the anise seed, and beat until fluffy. Stir in the eggs one at a time. Add the sifted ingredients and brandy, and stir until well blended. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/2 or 1/4 inch thickness, and cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. The traditional is fleur-de-lis. Place cookies onto baking sheets. Mix together the 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over the tops of the cookies.
Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the bottoms are lightly browned.

Rugelach can be shaped into crescents or rolled into a line and sliced into bite size pieces. Photo courtesy Rye Society.

Holiday Dessert Recipes: Poppy Seed Rugelach

Traditional
Source: Cindy Kutner aka @Cynthia.Sweets on Instagram for
Rye Society Delicatessen and Picklery, Denver

Ingredients: 
FILLING
1 can Solo poppy seed filling
Grated rind of ½ orange
1 TBS orange juice
½ cup finely chopped pecans
DOUGH
8 oz cream cheese, at room temp
½ lb butter, at room temp
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp kosher salt
2 cups all-purpose flour + 1 TBS (267 g)
Egg wash, cinnamon and sugar for finishing

Method:
Preheat oven to 350°. Cream the cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Add the sugar, salt, and the vanilla.
With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and mix just until combined. Dump the dough out onto a well-floured board and roll it into a ball. Cut the ball into quarters, wrap each piece in plastic, and refrigerate for one hour. Mix together all the poppy seed filling ingredients. On a well-floured board, roll each ball of dough into a 9 inch circle. Spread the dough with a thin layer of poppy seed filling.
Cut each circle into 10 or 12 equal wedges, cutting the whole circle into quarters, then each quarter into thirds. Starting at the wide edge roll up each wedge. **(at this point they can be frozen) Place the cookies, points tucked under, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Brush each cookie with the egg wash to keep them from cracking. Combine 3 tablespoons sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle on the cookies. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Moravian Cookies Recipe

Cookies fresh off the baking sheet are cooled, then packaged and sold at the factory, stores, and shipped far and wide.

Source: 1955 edition of North Carolina and Old Salem Cookery
Learn more in this article.

Ingredients:

¾ cup EACH butter and lard
¾ cup brown sugar
2 cups dark molasses
7 ½ cups flour
4 TBS cloves
4 TBS ground cinnamon
4 TBS ground ginger
1 tsp salt
1 TBS baking soda
¼ cup boiling water

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl cream butter and lard with sugar until fluffy.
Mix in molasses. Combine flour with spices and salt and mix into molasses mixture.
Mix together baking soda with water; then add to batter. Mix dough together with hand. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until it reaches “infinite” thinness.
Cut into shapes, place on a greased baking sheet.
Bake at 375 degrees until “just” brown – about five minutes.

Daniela’s Sicilian Chocolate Cake.

Holiday Dessert Recipes: Sicilian Chocolate Cake

If you can’t make it all the way to Sicily to sample the chocolate, here is a special Sicilian Chocolate Cake recipe from my friend, Daniela. It is delizioso, generous and feeds a lot of people — just like Daniela herself! – Libby Margolis-Pineo
4 eggs
1-1/4 cups flour
1-1/4 cups sugar
8 oz. plain or coconut yogurt
6 TBS canola oil
3 TBS cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
Mix sugar and eggs, then add all the other ingredients.  Put in a round fluted pan or a bundt pan at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar. Like so many Sicilian desserts, it is not too sweet — it is just perfect!
Editor’s note: While not traditionally for the holidays, we think this cake would be just beautiful garnished with berries and some mint leaves. We made this for a birthday party and it turned out great. Chocolate fiends that we are though, we made a ganache glaze with equal parts chocolate chips and heavy cream, melted together in a double boiler. While still hot, we poured it over the warm cake and let it set for a few minutes before serving. It was even better the next day.  

Holiday Dessert Recipes: Vintners Red Poached Pears

Vintners Red Poached Pears. Photo courtesy St. Augustine Ponte Vedra and San Sebastian Winery.

Recipe courtesy San Sebastian Winery  and St. Augustine Ponte Vedra  in Florida

Ingredients:
6 small firm ripe Anjou pears, peeled
3 ½ cups San Sebastian Vintners Red
2 cups pear nectar
1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 ½ tsp cornstarch
½ cup chopped peeled kiwi
½ cup chopped peeled cantaloupe
½ cup quartered strawberries
Fresh mint sprigs

Method:
Remove core from bottom end of pears. Combine wine, pear nectar and cinnamon stick in a large pot. Scrape in seeds from the vanilla bean; add the bean. Bring to a simmer. Add pears (liquid should cover pears halfway). Reduce heat to medium-low; cook until pears are tender, about 10 minutes, turning pears halfway through. Transfer pears and cooking liquid to a large bowl. Cool completely.
Drain poaching liquid back into pot. Mix 2 tablespoons liquid with cornstarch in a small bowl; return to the pot. Boil until sauce thickens and is reduced to 2 cups, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes. Cool sauce to room temperature. Spoon sauce into 6 shallow bowls. Place pears atop sauce. Sprinkle kiwi, cantaloupe and strawberries around pears. Garnish with mint and serve with a glass of San Sebastian Vintners Red.

Mary’s Ginger Tangerine Tart

This Ginger Tangerine Tart (pictured above) uses Mary’s Gone Crackers Ginger Snaps Cookies to make a flavorful pastry crust. While this recipe has multiple steps, it’s actually quite easy and the tarts are delish.

Recipe courtesy Mary’s Gone Crackers www.marysgonecrackers.com

Crust Ingredients:

Mary’s Ginger Tangerine Tart.

1 3/4 cups Mary’s Gone Crackers Ginger Snaps Cookies, crushed (or other Ginger Snaps cookies)
1/4 cup coconut palm sugar
1 TBS coconut flour
1/2 tsp. salt
4 TBS coconut oil, melted

Curd Ingredients:

1/4 cup cold water
1/2 cup sugar
3 TBS tapioca starch
1/4 cup fresh tangerine juice
2 tsp. tangerine zest
Pinch of salt

Coconut Cream Ingredients:

1 chilled can of coconut milk (overnight in the fridge)
2-3 tsp. coconut palm sugar
1 vanilla bean, scraped

Method:

Crust

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Blend ginger snap crumbs with sugar, coconut flour and salt.
Once incorporated, drizzle melted coconut oil in and stir to combine.
Press into mini tart pans or muffin tins.
Freeze for 10 minutes.
Bake for 10 minutes and set aside.

Curd

In a saucepan, whisk together water, sugar, tapioca starch, and salt until tapioca starch is dissolved.
Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
When mixture thickens, reduce heat to low and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.
Pour mixture into a non-metallic bowl and add lemon juice and zest, mixing well.
Allow to cool and thicken at room temperature.

Coconut Cream

Open the chilled can of coconut milk very carefully to not shake or disturb the cream on top.
Scoop the firmer cream from the top and leave the clear liquid. You can save this if you want to, but it is not used in this recipe.
Whip with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form.

Final Assembly

Pop the tart shells out of their pan.
Add the curd filling the shell 2/3 full.
Top with the coconut cream.
Garnish with ginger snap crumbs, pomegranate seeds or raspberries.

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